A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

I like problems

Well, not really, but I do like discussing problems about systems, hoping to figure out a better way to get a system to work.

Anyone that has watched my greenhouse videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU9x_W9X-tM) has seen I have it fully automated - I LOVE automation! The best part is I can spend very little time in there dealing with the vents, checking water levels, or even feeding the fish. I can easily disappear for several days and not worry about the system. Well, not really, I always worry about it. I just have to trust it keeps working!

The other day, my web site that collects the data stopped receiving information. I use a Wi-Fi access point (AKA Wi-Fi bridge) that transmits the data to our house - then to the Internet site. Upon closer inspection, the bridge wasn't powered up. I checked the power supply and it was good, then decided to pull apart the bridge. This bridge is designed to be used in the comfort of your home, not the harsh conditions of a greenhouse. It's easy to understand why industrial controllers can get quite expensive. Next time around, I'll probably get the same cheap bridge, then throw it in a NEMA (waterproof) box and try to figure out how to get the antenna through the case....

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Permalink Reply by Darrin Charbonneau on October 15, 2010 at 12:31am

Hey Rob,

If you haven't already replaced that damaged Wifi router/Bridge, you might want to try a Ubiquiti Nanostation. I've had great success with the smaller 'Loco' version.
http://www.ubnt.com/nanostationloco (Ebay...)
It can be mounted outside the greenhouse to avoid the heat/moisture issues.

Permalink Reply by Rob Torcellini on October 15, 2010 at 5:25am

I was able to build a new wireless bridge. I was given a Linksys WRT54G2 router that "didn't work". These don't have a setting to run in bridged mode, but the firmware can be replaced with the open source firmware from dd-wrt.com. (This firmware has far more features than the one that Cisco provides!)

Next I removed it from its shell and placed it in a surplus NEMA box. The antennas were simply hot-glued on to the circuit board. Working great! And, it was all free! ;-)

Permalink Reply by Darrin Charbonneau on October 15, 2010 at 7:49pm

Nice job! DDWRt is great, I've been using a similar firmware called Tomato for a couple years now.

Thanks for all the great videos. they inspired me to build one of my own.

Rob Torcellini said:

I was able to build a new wireless bridge. I was given a Linksys WRT54G2 router that "didn't work". These don't have a setting to run in bridged mode, but the firmware can be replaced with the open source firmware from dd-wrt.com. (This firmware has far more features than the one that Cisco provides!)

Next I removed it from its shell and placed it in a surplus NEMA box. The antennas were simply hot-glued on to the circuit board. Working great! And, it was all free! ;-)